That a son of the man who has been described as the most corrupt leader of the 20th century should be freed after only four years for the contract murder of a Supreme Court judge doesn't even raise an eyebrow in this country. Business as usual.

While the people cry out for their democratically elected government to do something about entrenched corruption, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono cogitates. Occasionally he makes a pretty speech about Indonesia's progress, or calls for reform of this department or that division of his government, but the fundamental rot that he swore to eliminate thrives. Despite having been swept to power as a man committed to reversing years of abuse of power, President Yudhoyono has failed to live up to his promise and he continues to refuse to take the most obvious steps to honouring his pledge to the people of Indonesia.

Yudhoyono was given the strongest mandate of any democratic leader in recent history. His mandate was to launch war on corruption; for the new president, there would be no more business as usual. And yet Yudhoyono refuses to press for the prosecution of former dictator Suharto; in fact, this president pays his predecessor respect when the former dictator is having one of his periodic convenient health crises. Yudhoyono refuses to step in and require the release of the results of the investigation into the murder of civil rights activist Munir; a murder that every thinking person recognises as being carried out by the same corrupt powers that Yudhoyono was elected to root out.

And Suharto's youngest and favourite son, Tommy, who had a Supreme Court judge murdered to protect himself and his business interests, walks out of prison a free man, having been released from his cushy berth and privileged treatment for what is described as good behaviour. And nobody is really surprised. Nobody is really surprised because the truth is Yudhoyono was not elected in a landslide because he was everyone's ideal candidate; he was elected because the alternatives were so odious.

It is significant that Yudhoyono was, after all, a soldier highly loyal to Suharto for many years; he had been in the Cabinets and in the inner circles of both presidents Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid and Megawati Sukarnoputri; he was under the direct command of General Wiranto at the very time the war crimes Wiranto was indicted for were committed. Yudhoyono, however, always managed to avoid being tainted by the ineptitude or iniquity of those with whom he was closely associated. His promises found willing ears because nobody with any credibility was saying the same things.

No longer is he simply the alternative whose greatest asset is that he's not one of his opponents. It has taken two years, but Yudhoyono has gradually come into focus. He has demonstrated that he is the kind of politician who can't distinguish between making a speech on a subject and actually doing something about it. He is the type of politician who says what needs to be said to get elected but balks at making any hard decisions. He is a politician who passes off diffidence, hesitancy and indecisiveness as virtues, by having his spin doctors portray him as a consensus-seeker and as a decision-maker who abhors haste. In fact, what he abhors is making decisions.

At this point Yudhoyono only maintains any part of his diminishing affection in the hearts of Indonesians for the same reason he was elected: a lack of viable alternatives. If one were to sum up Yudhoyono's probable legacy to Indonesia, sadly it would have to be said that he has actually set back the cause of reform, possibly permanently.

His failure to carry out the reforms he was elected to implement has encouraged a national malaise, a conviction that even the best intentions and most florid speeches are hollow, that rampant corruption is an intrinsic part of Indonesian culture and there is no hope of ever defeating it.

Patrick Guntensperger

The Jakarta Post

Jakarta

The writer is a political risk analyst, social commentator and a lecturer in media and communications at Monash College.